ARTICLES ABOUT ACTORS EQUITY ASSOCIATION BY DATE - PAGE 3

A half-dozen or so non-Equity troupes are poised to start using union contracts under a new arrangement now being negotiated with Actors' Equity Association. Details won't be final until late August, when Equity's current contracts with all participating Chicago area theaters expire. But both sides are optimistic a new introductory tier of membership will be created enabling troupes such as Lookingglass Theatre, Touchstone Theatre, Lifeline Theatre, Roadworks Productions and Shattered Globe Theatre to use Equity actors.

In this season of large-scale productions, some union actors are complaining that an awful lot of work is going to non-union performers. In the city, Steppenwolf Theatre's 29-member "A Clockwork Orange" lists only nine members of Actors' Equity Association. In contrast, the Goodman Theatre's "The Merchant of Venice" features only two non-union performers in a cast of 18. Meanwhile, Candlelight Dinner Playhouse was recently granted a concession by Actors Equity enabling it to hire only five union actors out of a cast of 18 for its upcoming production of "You Can't Take It With You" at its smaller Forum Theatre in Summit.

Daniel K. Ludwig, 95, a publicity-shy shipping tycoon who remained a billionaire despite losing a billion-dollar investment in an Amazon plantation; he parlayed a $5,000 loan from his father into a global business empire, National Bulk Carriers Inc., based on a fleet of supertankers; he also owned citrus farms in Panama, coal mines in Australia, hotels in the Caribbean and a salt plant in Mexico's Baja California; he once was the world's richest man,...

The producers of "The Will Rogers Follies" say "not guilty" to allegations of discrimination in its casting. The response is to a grievance filed by Actors` Equity Association with the League of American Theaters and Producers and to a letter from New York City's Human Rights Commission, which states its intention to investigate accusations of discrimination made by a group called Performers Against Racism in Theater and Stage. The musical has angered three groups since it opened in May: women, because of the mile-high posters of branded cowgirls outside the theater, which after much outcry were removed; American Indians, who protested a dance number performed by a nearly nude Indian on top of a drum, on the ground that it was sacrilegious (the number has not been changed)

`I`ve always sympathized with the underdog. I think of all the talented people who want to perform, and sometimes there are just no opportunities," says Alisa Gyse. Now appearing with legendary lyricist Sammy Cahn in "Sammy Cahn (and Friends)" at the Wellington Theatre, Gyse, who is of black-Japanese ancestry, has been an important ingredient in the success of the show, which has been extended to Dec. 31, and she is about to face a new challenge as she takes a role in the controversial casting of the upcoming "Miss Saigon" in New York.

Wisdom Bridge Theatre, an off-Loop institution that suffered severe damage in a divisive 1988 intramural power struggle, is opening its 17th season next week with hopes that the worst of its dark days are behind it. Jeffrey Ortmann, who took control of the theater as producing director after artistic director Richard E.T. White resigned, acknowledged that the Bridge has suffered substantial subscription erosion in the last two years and is...

Things are not as OK at David Merrick's "Oh, Kay!" as at least one cast member would like. Mark Kenneth Smaltz, who plays Janson, a police officer, has been forbidden by Merrick to take his curtain call with the rest of the cast. Why? Smaltz isn`t sure, but he's angry enough to have filed a complaint with Actors` Equity Association against the legendary producer. Curtain calls are not specifically addressed in Equity's rule book, but are governed by past practice, and the union says this case could set a precedent.

The bitter Broadway battle over "Miss Saigon" appeared headed for an armistice this week, as Actors` Equity Association scheduled a meeting to reconsider its controversial decision to ban a Caucasian actor from portraying a Eurasian in the multimillion-dollar musical. Responding to a petition from more than 150 members, Equity officials set another meeting of its 79-member council for Thursday, with phone hook-ups to New York from members across the country guaranteeing a large turnout.

The producer of the hit London musical "Miss Saigon" has canceled its scheduled U.S. premiere, following Actors` Equity Association's refusal to permit a white British actor to portray a Eurasian in the show. The action, climaxing a bitter, highly emotional dispute of profound economic and artistic repercussions, immediately eliminated a huge money-making, job-producing show from the new Broadway season. Farther down the line, it means that the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago will not get the first national touring production, which Cameron Mackintosh, the producer, tentatively had planned to open here in the spring of 1992.

Rupert Holmes says that a realistic time estimate for his new show, "Swing," for which he has written book, music and lyrics, is next spring and that he has already raised a great deal of the $4 million or more it will cost. "It's a big Broadway show that will have a big cast, lots of choreography and lots of sets," said Holmes, who has been working on the musical for almost four years, with time out for his recent Broadway thriller, "Accomplice." The new show, about the Big Band era, is set in 1946-47-"a wonderful time in American history and the last gasp for the Big Bands."